When we don't eat leftovers, we waste good food

American consumers throw away 27 million tons of food each year, according to the food waste coalition ReFED, clogging landfills, generating greenhouse gasses, and costing the economy an estimated $144 billion.

The solution could be simple: get people to eat leftovers again.

Once the mainstay of weekday lunchboxes and thrifty home cooks, leftovers today constitute the single largest source of edible food waste in U.S. homes, according to a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.

The finding defies conventional wisdom about the sorts of foods consumers waste — and represents a major obstacle for environmentalists and anti-food-waste campaigns. While past efforts focused on improving consumers’ food literacy and kitchen skills, converting them to leftovers involves changing food preferences.

Advertisement

“I don’t think this is just about education,” said Dana Gunders, a senior scientist in NRDC’s Food and Agriculture Program. “It’s a cultural shift that needs to happen.”

In the report, NRDC analyzed the food-waste habits of more than 1,151 households in Nashville, Denver and New York, who kept diaries of items they tossed and allowed researchers to check their trash afterward.

What researchers found was staggering: The average person wasted 3.5 pounds of food per week. Of that, only a third consisted of inedible parts, such as chicken bones or banana peels. Of the edible trashed food, bin digs found that 23 percent consisted of prepared leftovers, followed by fruits and vegetables, baked goods, liquids and oils.

Gunders said that many consumers appear to stash Tupperware containers in their fridge and forget till the food goes bad. Other times, consumers grow bored of eating the same food on multiple occasions.

“There were two big reasons people threw out edible food,” Gunders said. “They thought it had spoiled, or they just didn’t like leftovers.”

This is not a new feeling in the American psyche, but it has come under scrutiny with increased attention to food waste. Food historian Helen Veit observed that regard for leftovers plummeted in the 1960s, as refrigeration and cheap food became plentiful. Saving food was patriotic during the World Wars, and economic necessity in the century before, but rising incomes and agricultural productivity pushed thrift out of favor.

“I’m not saying all Americans did this recklessly, but by the 1960s, people were able to say, ‘I’d rather not eat that leftover pot roast,’” Veit said. “They could say, ‘Let’s drive to a restaurant or go to the grocery store or get something out of the freezer.’”

Shifting Americans back to the old way could be tricky. Gunders suggests public-service campaigns to get people to “love their leftovers.” NRDC also emphasizes education on portion size and meal-planning to encourage home cooks to make only what they’ll consume.

Apart from that, environmentalists and anti-food-waste campaigners hope for a shift in American culture. Gunders says cultural influencers can help convince people it’s cool to eat leftovers. Some have already tried: Ted Allen, the host of the Food Network show “Chopped,” said leftovers is not “a dirty word” during one of the show’s three episodes on the subject.

But if Americans are truly to embrace the doggy bag, they may need a stronger push, Veit said. Veit sees a possible model in the propaganda campaigns that got Americans to embrace leftovers in World Wars I&II.

“They succeeded,” she said, “by pushing this idea that it was morally wrong to waste food.”